Introduction
Unilever is a global company that deals with manufacture of consumer products. The company manufactures a wide range of products ranging from food to personal and home categories. The company’s engagement in production of different commodities has largely contributed to its growth in most parts of the world. The success of Unilever company relies on the ability to market its products and strategies to penetrate the market. This mainly involves proper marketing research and the need to meet customers’ requirements. Various aspects that contribute to the growth of Unilever as a consumer product company are discussed in the paper.
Strengths and Opportunities
The growth of Unilever entirely depends on both the company’s internal and external analysis. The company’s prevalence in the consumer products market owes credit to the internal strengths and ability to utilize the opportunities in the outside environment. One of the major strengths for Unilever’s penetration in the global market is diversification of consumer products in markets all over the world. Diversification is the production of several varieties of goods with the aim of expansion to enjoy the market share of most product consumers in different regions (Graham, 2007).
The idea of diversification entitled the products managers in different regions with powers to make decisions on the marketing strategy of the products. This enabled proper distribution of products since the managers on the ground knew the most consumed products hence increasing its supplies in the regions. An additional strength of the company dwells in Unilever’s capability to foresee customers’ ways of product purchase and consumption of goods. This enables them to supply products according to market demand and needs of customers.
The ready market for consumer product purchase all over the world offers a great opportunity for Unilever company products. According to Fletcher (2010), new markets provide greater potential for an immense growth in product sales. Therefore, the introduction of Unilever products in new markets provides the opportunity for potential growth in sales. Such opportunities offer the advantages of enjoying the global market share of the product before other companies in the same category.
Keys to success in the consumer product manufacturing industry
The success in consumer products industry owes credit to well planned marketing strategies, proper coordination between the internal and external factors of the company in the market share. Since the industry is very competitive, customer relationship also accounts for the growth and expansion in this industry. Consumer research is a vital subject for success in this industry. For the case of Unilever, extensive research is done to enable innovation of fresh products and improvement of existing products to fit the consumers’ needs. This involves rebranding and getting to customers in both local and international markets by smooth relations between the company and its customers. To achieve this, the company has to implement appropriate customer relationship management strategies (Waarts, 2005).
Implementation of culture difference strategy is another important factor towards success in consumer product industry. Unilever applies this strategy to penetrate into local markets. This contributes to expansion in different markets at a faster rate than companies that do not apply the strategy. The company combines this strategy with building correct leadership behavior to produce competent employees and managers. These produce responsible staff which engages in socio-cultural promotional programs in order to win the customers hence consumption of their products. Moreover, success in this industry requires efficient transformation in information technology (Hoskinsson, 2009). With the fast changing technology, companies need to keep track in order to apply e-commerce which enhances efficient and quick transactions between the consumers and the organization.
Unilever’s strategies for competition in global markets
The main important strategy used by Unilever to compete for the market share in the industry is the global strategy. The strategy involves marketing of brands in local environments and maintaining the supply of similar products in these regions. The company also applies this strategy to produce new brands for marketing in different regions all over the world. This strategy is of benefit to the company since it improves the uniformity in the marketing operations at the same time building the product’s brand equity.
Unilever employs the cross- market strategy to succeed in getting customers from their competitors. This is done by providing their products in the market at a subsidized price which is normally lower than that of other competing companies. These strategies work for Unilever because most companies find it difficult to offer these services while maintaining high quality of products (Jones, 2002).
Lessons learnt from Unilever case study
From the case study, it is observed that Unilever is a multinational company in production of consumer commodities. The ability of Unilever to use its strengths such as involvement in variety of products enables the company to utilize the available opportunities in expansion to international markets. Further more, the company’s strategies in market entry show that for success in such a business, one needs to use appropriate and effective marketing strategies in order to succeed in a competitive market (Fletcher, 2010). Therefore, it is important to plan well and carefully follow the appropriate strategies for success in the industry.
Conclusion
The success of Unilever in this category is based on the company’s marketing strategies. The ability of the company to introduce its commodities in new and emerging markets give it an advantage to grow in most parts of the world. The growth of the company is also observed as a result of its engagement in manufacture of different products. These strategies teach us the importance of well planned market strategies and the importance of diversification in brand marketing.
References
Fletcher, C. (2010). Unilever’s volume beats estimates, aided by Europe. Business Week, 6. Web.
Graham, J. L., & Cateora, R. P. (2007). International marketing. London: McGraw-Hill.
Hoskinsson, R. E., Ireland, D. R., & Hitt, A. M. (2009). Strategic management: competitiveness and globalization: Concepts & cases. Cambridge: Cengage Learning.
Jones, G. (2002). Control, performance, and knowledge transfers in large multinationals: Unilever in the United States. Business History Review, 76 (43-45).
Waarts, E. (2005). Competition as an inspirational marketing tool. European Business Forum,12,(3-6).